Do authors really need to blog?

And there’s certainly some truth in that. No point having an excellent blog if none of the books get finished! (Unless of course you discover along the way that you want to become a blogger instead of an author, which is also a valid choice.)

So do authors really need to blog?

There’s so much else to do. Do I really have to blog as well??(Image via Bigstock/michaeljung)

I know you’re busy, so I wish I could say something different, but the answer I keep getting from all sorts of directions is, “Well, yes.” Dang.

If you are already a bestselling author with a huge readership, make your own choice. If you have a large offline platform from which to promote your books, a static website may be enough.

But if you are still creating your writing career, blogging is something to put on the Really Must Consider list.

Why does it matter?

If you plan to self-publish globally, your blog or website will become the hub of your book marketing. (A blog is just a type of website that gets updated often and therefore is more popular with Google.)

And if you are pursuing traditional publishing, most agents and publishers now want you to have an author platform/reader community BEFORE they sign you (literary fiction is sometimes an exception to this). Your blog or website is the online centre of that platform/community.

Just recently I heard a panel of publishers from three of the Big 5 and one university press tell a roomful of eager writers about the truths of modern publishing. They talked about lots of different things, but agreed that when confronted with an interesting query for commercial fiction or non-fiction, the first thing they do is google the author’s name.

Scary, huh?

Try this exercise: go to http://google.com/ncr and search your name. (The ncr on the end of the web address means google disregards your location, so you’re getting a better idea of what other people around the world see when they search for you.)

Are you on the first page of google search for your name? (Harder if your name is John Smith, unfortunately — in that case you might want to think about a pen name 😉 )

And are the pages that come up for you the types of things you’d want a publisher or agent or potential reader to see? Or are they silly pictures of you posted by your Facebook friends with a bucket on your head?

Hmmm…

Now, getting onto various social media platforms as a writer can help with this vexing issue of being search-worthy. If you have a great profile and following on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Facebook, that can help credible and writing-related pages to show up in searches for your name.

But it’s not the full answer, and this is the biggest reason why:

You don’t actually own any of those social media profiles, the social network itself owns it, and you can lose it tomorrow.

You own your blog or website, and have a significant amount of control over it.

You can present professionally to the online world via your blog, rather than having other people determine it for you. It’s your PR team, and it’s also your way of making meaningful connections with your community of readers.

The benefits of blogging

Yes, it can be a lot of work, but it can also be a very useful thing to do.

You’ll get better as a writer, the more you practice. You’ll be able to write faster, and you’ll have a more confident writer’s “voice”.

You can even turn those blog posts into another book. LOTS of people do, and do so successfully. By publishing a book of your blog articles — edited and revised of course — you can reach a whole new set of people via Amazon and other online bookstores. You can even plan your blog schedule with the end book in mind. Check out these articles for some suggestions as to how to go about it.

Quick tips for how to get started

Start small

Some people try to blog daily, and many of them are eventually carried off in white vans with padded interiors. Never fear, even the most successful bloggers in the world are now telling us that the days of daily blogging are over, so feel free not to fall into that trap yourself.

Blog weekly if that’s what’s sustainable for you. Or even monthly if that’s what you can manage.

Sure, you will get a bigger readership faster if you blog more often, but you probably have a job and/or family, plus other writing commitments, and I believe being realistic is the best way to get started.

Start early

Some people say you don’t need to start blogging till the book is finished. I disagree, and that’s because of that comment from those publishers. You need to have an online profile as a writer BEFORE you start querying publishers or trying to do something with your book. And it takes a long time to get going. It took me many months to get to the front page of google for my name, and I don’t have a very common name.

Sure, don’t let your blog or website devour all your writing time, but do get started early, as it will pay off later when you need it.

Aim to start blogging about a year before you plan to a. query agents/publishers or b. self-publish. Even if you start slow, just start.

Don’t expect a million hits tomorrow

Blogging isn’t cute or new any more, and there are a bazillion other blogs out there competing for the click. It will take a while for your community of readers to find you. That’s OK. (Tip: get active on Twitter — that’s where my first blog readers came from.)

Use WordPress

WordPress is free blogging software, and if you can use Microsoft Word OK, chances are you can get blogging fairly quickly using the WordPress interface. It’s user-friendly.

If you’ve already got a blog established on a different blogging platform like Blogger etc, you may not want to move, and that’s OK for now. But if you are just starting, all the geeks say to use WordPress. Apparently it just does better on the google searches. Apparently the “spiders” like it. (I told you the internet was weird.)

Use your writing name

If you can possibly get www.YourName.com, that’s the way to go. (It can be your pen name if you’re using a pen name.) It just gives you more flexibility later.

If you register the name of a book as your web address, that’s just one book. Hopefully, you’re going to write others. Much better to have your platform built around something that will stay constant no matter what you write, and no matter how the topics may change over your writing career.

Be as professional as you can from the beginning…

If you can possibly afford it, choose a self-hosted blog over one of the free ones. “Self-hosting” sounds oddly like a dinner party for one, but in fact just means that you arrange the internet hosting yourself. 😉 (I use Hostgator myself, and they have plans starting at about $50-70 a year, plus lots of how-to videos for non-geeks like me, and fast’n’friendly 24/7 Live Chat support, even though I’m on the other side of the world from their offices.) Check out this post by Molly Greene about why she wishes she’d started with a paid rather than free blog.

Write good. An chick yor spellng. Into every blog a few typos and grammar glitches will fall (and this blog is no exception!). That’s OK, we’re not expecting perfection. But the effort to make your blog posts as well-constructed and “clean” as you possibly can will pay off long-term, in credibility and platform building. (They will also need less editing when you turn them into that book… 😉 )

Always remember that blogging is publishing. This is the public face of your writing, so it’s worth making it as sleek as you can.

Nothing ties a blog in knots so quickly as thinking you must be brilliant in every post, right from the start. It’s OK to learn as you go. It’s OK to be a bit average until you figure out exactly what it is you want to say.

You’ll find your rhythm and your voice. Just get started and be kind to yourself.

It’s OK. 🙂

What do you think? Are you already blogging? Teetering on the brink? Hoping I was going to say you don’t need to do it??? Talk to me, I Iove to read your comments. 🙂

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Comments

Great post, Belinda! I agree with all your points. I wish I’d started blogging years before I began to write fiction (instead of the other way around), because the quality of my writing, my discipline, self-confidence, and overall production goals all changed/increased a hundred fold after posting weekly blog articles for a couple of years. Blogging changed my life, drew wonderful people into it (like you!) and introduced me to an online realm I’d shunned as superficial. Not! 🙂

Hello Belinda, great topic as always. My question is around blog topics, I am writing my first book about women who never gave birth to their own children, I myself don’t have children and am not sure what that department in life holds for me. With my blog though, I talk about everything from politics to girl’s weekends to the topic of my book. Does my blog have to be more focused than that? Should I talk more about my book topic? I am concerned that if I do it might get a bit bland, a bit restrictive.
Any input or comments on this would be great.
Thanks!

Hi Wilamina, you are so right, finding the topic for your blog is hard work! In fact, you must be psychic, I was planning a follow-up post on how to choose your topic. 🙂

I’ve struggled with this one myself. My personal blog at http://www.belindapollard.com used to be about writing, and then I changed it to make it about the topics I write about. Since I write wilderness thrillers, humorous dog stories, and spiritual meditations, it’s a challenge bringing those together on one blog!! 😉 So I’ve gone for a blend of topics related to the beauty of creation, funny/endearing animals and sometimes spiritual thoughts (nothing too heavy because it doesn’t suit the blog). That blog is very much a work in progress, not nearly as developed as this one, and I’m taking my time to work out how I want to do it long-term.

So what you might find is that women who have not given birth also have a number of other interests in common with you. Maybe try to get a clear picture in your head of who you think your target reader is, and then talk about things that you think will interest that woman, even though they are not always exactly about childlessness or stepchildren, etc. Allow yourself time to feel your way into a range of topics that really suits your passions and your writer’s voice. (And stay tuned for my next post, which will hopefully give a few more tips — still thinkin’ of ’em. 😉

Hi Belinda, great post as always. As a new, soon to be self published author, I have been learning the ropes here in cyber world from great industry teachers such as yourself and Molly Greene. I am actually in the midst of having my own website created for the reasons you mentioned above. I’m having a web designer do it for me as I am not a techie expert and he will be moving my free wordpress site to a non wordpress site as he is affiliated with GoDaddy. I have also been learning the importance of setting up an email signup which is currently driving me nuts (Molly knows this :)), I just can’t seem to wrap my head around why an email marketing company would publicly display your personal address info and not keep it for themselves, thus making us have to pay for a post box address which will never get used. I’m wondering what many other starting out authors with low budgets are doing to have subscribe lists for their sites, circumventing paying $170 for an address. Ironically, I just signed up to 2 new publications today and I noticed they were by Aweber and I looked carefully on the sign up confirmation optin and never even saw any address other than and I P, any thoughts?

Great idea Belinda! Definitely food for thought on address sharing. Yes, I am quite aware of those spam laws as I have been poking around. I suppose it makes for a safer use for all of us, but, sheesh, the unnecessary expense :(. I was just wondering if there was some other good email subscribe system that you may have known about that I didn’t find. I know most authors use Mailchimp or Aweber and they are both the same on this issue. Thanks for all your great advice and postings, glad to be following!:)

Hi Debby, I do use the free Feedburner tool over at my personal author blog, although I suspect I should be migrating that one to AWeber too, as it gives me a lot more control over what I can do with the list. Some of the big guys in blogging seem to use Infusionsoft, but I doubt it would have any different policy than AWeber and Mailchimp.

Great article and very timely for me. I’ve had a blog attached to my website for a year or so but am not very ‘bloggy’. Need to set a schedule and post more frequently. It helps to know people won’t expect every day or even every week, although I think I might make every week my goal.
Thanks

Hi Suzanna, I think weekly is a good goal. I try to post weekly to this blog. My author blog gets neglected a bit. But that’s OK for now too, because there are things going on in my life that I just have to deal with.

It’s good to have that blog page attached to your website. New content always gets google’s attention. I hope you enjoy your blogging, and find a way to make it work for you! 🙂

Enjoyed your post. Although I love my blog and wish I’d started it sooner, I don’t agree it’s an absolute necessity for writers, as I’ve seen several get published without one. However, I do find I get a bit irritated when I want to contact authors and find they don’t have a web presence (I do a Q&A with debut novelists on my website) so I suppose I’m generally in favour.

Yes there’s definitely people without blogs who get published. It’s just that these days it’s becoming virtually impossible to get published for the first time without an existing online presence of some sort, and a blog is the simplest way to create that — in a format that we can control and own.

Thanks, Belinda, for some very helpful advice – as always 🙂 For me the hardest thing about keeping a blog has been managing the time I spend on it, but I have become much better at this. Prioritising and planning helps a lot – in fact, I am sure I got some very good advice on this from you and Molly Green!! I think one’s circumstances can also make a difference too. For example, I am spending less time on my blog at the moment as I need to get some writing done, but after that I may well up the output again, who knows? I suppose we need to do what works best for us. Practice certainly helps. Thanks again 🙂

Totally agree, Marianne! A blog can become a big black hole if we’re not careful, sucking in time like Dr Who’s vacuum cleaner. And I think we do need to do what works best for us, even if it isn’t necessarily what’s going to get the biggest readership by this time next month. 😉 It’s good to be eager, but sometimes more sustainable to be sensible.

What wonderfully comprehensive post, Belinda, and right in line with my own about how to write your author bio for your book proposal (and why it’s so important): http://wp.me/p2IvJd-Aj. Thanks for sharing all these great ideas.

I started my professional blog last spring. My main focus is getting my first novel completed, but after taking Courtney Carver’s Good Blog Course, I realized how vital my blog would be my writing success. I still struggle to find regular content, and I am far from brilliant in every post, but I do put my heart out there in my effort to encourage other new writers to follow there dreams too.

Great post on the importance of blogging. I found your article via Marianne’s reference at : http://www.mariannewheelaghan.co.uk/?p=6539.
I’ve been blogging now for a little over a year and I use WordPress, for my writing blog anyway, so I consider myself off to a good start. An issue I struggle with: do I use my blog as a ‘content’ source or as a vehicle to plug my own books, or a little bit of both? I confess it’s easier and more fun writing for the blog than writing a book, but that’s the challenge. Again, thanks for the helpful thoughts.

Honestly, i think you can do both as long as there is a balance. You’re readers don’t want to read constant promotional posts, but they do want to know what you’re working on and how to get their hands on it. The great thing about our blogs is we are developing a fan base! I plan to do both on my blog.

I agree too that a little promotion is welcome and expected. But for new and emerging writers particularly, it seems to be essential to write something other than the latest news of our latest book… writers who already have a big fan base write under different rules. All the best with your blogging! 🙂

Sarah, my blogging has evolved too. I think over time we find our “voice”… as writer’s we have an authorial voice, but there’s also a blogging voice, which may be slightly different to the authorial voice, and yet is uniquely our own. Enjoy your blogging! 🙂

Diane, you can blog for quite a while and nothing seems to be happening, and then suddenly one day, it just takes off. If it’s building your writing skills, it’s worth doing anyway. Hope you enjoy it. 🙂

I can’t get over how welcome a visitor feels here! Maybe it’s because you’re so encouraging and reply to everyone. As for me, I intend to plunge into self-publishing as soon as I’m confident I know my way around it, and I understand the need for blogging, that’s why I created a wordpress blog recently. For the time being, I re-post my goodreads book reviews, and pepper it with some thoughts on writing or useful writers links. I’m not sure though… I write contemporary romance and, as a reader, I try to get out of my comfort zone to get in touch with reader trends. The result is that I huff and puff in my reviews (seriously, what’s wrong with the increasing throngs of women readers who rave about domineering male characters bent on debasing women?) so it’s not exactly a mellow place to be. Maybe I should change my reading habits, but then again, how will I get in touch with a (future) romance fanbase if I blog about thrillers?
Sorry about the rant…
Greetings from Greece!

So glad you feel welcome, Maria, and greetings from Australia. 🙂 I can understand why people who get hundreds of comments a day don’t reply to everyone — they couldn’t possibly have time. But for the rest of us, I always thinks it’s a good practice to get involved in the discussion as much as possible. Very occasionally a comment slips through and I miss it, but as much as possible I like to read every one. I think about my visitors like visitors to my house… I wouldn’t ignore them, either. 😉

Sounds like you are getting a feel for how you like to blog. And you can always develop that further or even change and adapt as you go on — there’s no law against changing blog topics a year or two down the track if you feel drawn to a different angle later!

As for romance writing, personally I prefer the ones where both characters have strength as well as flaws. Keep on writing what’s important to you! 🙂